"A massive attack on the property rights"

In an unprecedented move, Hamburg authorities confiscated six residential units in the Hamm district near the city center. A trustee appointed by the city is now renovating the properties and will rent them — against the will of the owner — to tenants chosen by the city. District spokeswoman Sorina Weiland said that all renovation costs will be billed to the owner of the properties.

Similar expropriation measures have been proposed in Berlin, the German capital, but abandoned because they were deemed unconstitutional.

Some Germans are asking what is next: Will authorities now limit the maximum amount of living space per person, and force those with large apartments to share them with strangers?

Authorities in Hamburg, the second-largest city in Germany, have begun confiscating private dwellings to ease a housing shortage — one that has been acutely exacerbated by Chancellor Angela Merkel's decision to allow more than two million migrants into the country in recent years.

City officials have been seizing commercial properties and converting them into migrant shelters since late 2015, when Merkel opened German borders to hundreds of thousands of migrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Now, however, the city is expropriating residential property units owned by private citizens.

In an unprecedented move, Hamburg authorities recently confiscated six residential units in the Hamm district near the city center. The units, which are owned by a private landlord, are in need of repair and have been vacant since 2012. A trustee appointed by the city is now renovating the properties and will rent them — against the will of the owner — to tenants chosen by the city. District spokeswoman Sorina Weiland said that all renovation costs will be billed to the owner of the properties.

The expropriation is authorized by the Hamburg Housing Protection Act (Hamburger Wohnraumschutzgesetz), a 1982 law that was updated by the city's Socialist government in May 2013 to enable the city to seize any residential property unit that has been vacant for more than four months.

The forced lease, the first of its kind in Germany, is said to be aimed at pressuring the owners of other vacant residences in the city to make them available for rent. Of the 700,000 rental units in Hamburg, somewhere between 1,000 and 5,000 (less than one percent) are believed to be vacant, according an estimate by the Hamburg Senate.

Hamburg, Germany. (Image source: Morris MacMatzen/Getty Images)

Socialists and Greens in Hamburg recently established a "hotline" where local residents can report vacant properties. Activists have also created a website — Leerstandsmelder (Vacancy Reporter) — to identify unoccupied real estate in Hamburg and other German cities.

It remains unclear why the landlord in Hamm left his apartments vacant for more than five years. Some have posited that, given the location of the properties, the renovation costs may have been too high and probably would not have been offset by the rental income.

Others are blaming city officials for not approving more building permits to allow for the construction of new residential units. A study conducted in 2012 — well before the migrant crisis reached epic proportions — forecast that by 2017, Hamburg would have a deficit of at least 50,000 rental properties.

In 2016, however, only 2,433 new residential units came onto the market, while only 2,290 new building permits were approved, according to statistics provided by the City of Hamburg. These numbers were up slightly from 2,192 new units and 2,041 new permit approvals in 2015.

In 2012, Hamburg's Socialist government presented a plan to build 6,000 new residential units per year. The plan never materialized, however, because prospective builders were constricted by government-imposed rental caps which would have made it impossible for them to even recover their construction costs.

Since then, the city has turned to seizing private property to resolve its self-inflicted housing crisis.

On October 1, 2015, the Hamburg Parliament (Hamburgische Bürgerschaft) approved a new law that allows the city to seize vacant commercial real estate (office buildings, retail space and land) and use it to house migrants.

City officials said the measure was necessary because, at the time, more than 400 new migrants were arriving in Hamburg each day and all the existing refugee shelters were full. They said that because the owners of vacant real estate refused to make their property available to the city on a voluntary basis, the city should be given the right to take it by force.

The measure was applauded by those on the left of the political spectrum. "We are doing everything we can to ensure that the refugees are not homeless during the coming winter," said Senator Till Steffen of the Green Party. "For this reason, we need to use vacant commercial properties."

Others have argued that efforts by the state to seize private property are autocratic and reek of Communism. "The proposed confiscation of private land and buildings is a massive attack on the property rights of the citizens of Hamburg," said André Trepoll of the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU). "It amounts to an expropriation by the state." He said the proposed measure is a "law of intimidation" that amounts to a "political dam-break with far-reaching implications." He added: "The ends do not justify any and all means."

Katja Suding, the leader of the Free Democrats (FDP) in Hamburg, said that the proposed law is an "unacceptable crossing of red lines... Such coercive measures will only fuel resentment against refugees."

Similar expropriation measures have been proposed in Berlin, the German capital, but abandoned because they were deemed unconstitutional.

In November 2015, lawmakers in Berlin considered emergency legislation that would have allowed local authorities to seize private residences to accommodate asylum seekers. The proposal would have authorized police forcibly to enter private homes and apartments without a warrant to determine their suitability as housing for refugees and migrants.

The legislation, proposed by Berlin Mayor Michael Müller of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), would have amended Section 36 of Berlin's Public Order and Safety Law (Allgemeine Gesetz zum Schutz der öffentlichen Sicherheit und Ordnung, ASOG), which currently allows police to enter private residences only in extreme instances, to "avert acute threats," that is, to fight serious crime. Müller wanted to expand the scope for warrantless inspections to include "preventing homelessness."

The proposal was kept secret from the public until the leader of the Free Democrats (FDP) in Berlin, Sebastian Czaja, warned the measure would violate the German constitution. He said:

"The plans of the Berlin Senate to requisition residential and commercial property without the consent of the owner to accommodate refugees is an open breach of the constitution. The attempt by the Senate to undermine the constitutional right to property and the inviolability of the home must be resolutely opposed."

Since then, both the mayor's office and the Senate appear to have abandoned their plans.

Following an investigation, Gunnar Schupelius, a columnist with the Berlin newspaper BZ, wrote:

"A strange report made the rounds at the weekend: The Senate would authorize the police to enter private homes to house refugees, even against the will of the owner. I thought it was only satire, then a misunderstanding, because the Basic Law, Article 13, states: 'The home is inviolable.'

"So I went on a search for the source of this strange report and found it. There is a 'proposal' which the Senate Chancellery (Senatskanzlei) has apparently circulated among the senators. The Senate Chancellery is another name for the mayor's office. The permanent secretary is Björn Böhning (SPD)...

"The proposal is clear: The police can enter private property without a court order in order to search for housing for refugees when these are threatened with homelessness. You can do that 'without the consent of the owner.' And not only should the police be allowed to do this, but also the regulatory agencies.

"This delicate 'proposal' attracted little public attention. Only Berlin FDP General Secretary Sebastian Czaja spoke up and warned of an 'open preparation for breach of the constitution.' Internally, there should have been protests. The 'proposal' suddenly disappeared from the table. Is it completely gone or will it return?"

It remains unclear why no one has challenged the constitutionality of Hamburg's expropriation law.

Meanwhile, some Germans are asking what is next: Will authorities now limit the maximum amount of living space per person, and force those with large apartments to share them with strangers?

Comment on this item

97 Reader Comments

Hartmut Brocharski • May 21, 2017 at 14:04

Both moves in Hamburg and Berlin are certainly unconstitutional.

It makes no difference though since so far no one has either challenged Hamburg's administration in court or removed the Berlin secretary (or his boss, the mayor) from office. Merkel's constitutional breach in 2015 when she suspended all border protection flooded Germany with masses of illegals and criminals was not only the biggest one but also on an unprecedented scale. Consequences: NONE!

Since ordinary citizens are legally blocked from taking any matters to the constitutional court (the highest jurisdiction in Germany) the federal, state or municipal administration - as long as they stick together on the issue, which they do - remain entirely unassailable. And it shows! They deliberately put one nail after another in the coffin of liberty in the country, not shying away from illegality.

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Georgia • May 20, 2017 at 04:07

Well, it's just that simple,
It is the vocation of some to toil and create "Value" via hard work and skill and then there are those whose sole vocation seems to re-distribute that value (no skills needed here.... really....therefore do not worry if you do not find the successful businessman or woman an those circles....)

For those who seek to invest so as to keep the economy running: get your budd out of Germany before the fruit of your labour gets confiscated....

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Russell • May 16, 2017 at 05:33

So Merkel and her EU cronies really are creating the Fourth Reich. What's next? Everyone having to salute and shout "Heil Merkel" perhaps. One wonders when protesters will be rounded up by a new EU formed SS, placed in camps and have their homes and possessions confiscated. Probably the Jews first as is normal in Europe. Islam and their Liberal useful idiots are going to destroy Europe whilst the true Europeans watch TV. The wages of sin on a nation perhaps?

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John Manley • May 16, 2017 at 03:53

So why did the German government not step in and stop the dereliction that they showed by leaving all the old married quarters at Royal Air Force Laarbruch, and other bases in Germany, to rot and fall into disrepair. Now they COULD have been used to house the immigrants!!!! Maybe it was because the local residents didn't want the people to be housed in their back yard!!!!

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Jim • May 15, 2017 at 22:32

When has it ever turned out well when the government (those few wielding power) seize private property for the "greater good"? At what point does it end? Not only do these few seize someone else's property with no compensation, they actually bill the rightful owner for the renovations? How is this different from taking a person hostage and forcing them to empty their bank account? Legal Vs Illegal act because it is the government acting in it's own interest? Let's just call it what it is...... theft and a crime against their own people. It wasn't right when the Americans did it to their own citizens of Japanese descent or the Germans that did it and worse to it's citizens of Jewish descent.

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Christian Schmidt • May 15, 2017 at 17:04

And the worst is that "all the renovation cost will be billed to the owner of the properties". So, if they were deemed "unconstitutional" in other cities, how can Hamburg get away with it ?

In any case, that sets a scary precedent. And moreover, it does not help ANYTHING ! It is a drop in the bucket. Millions more will come, and then what ? Disown farmers of their farmland ? Force commercial landlords to give up their temporarily empty properties ?

Now, let it be said that there are tons of foreign landlords in Germany by now, many from the middle east, who let beautiful old buildings deteriorate because they just wanted to launder or park their money but don't have the money for a proper renovation. In those cases, I would indeed say that they violated their good standing, and should be held accountable, being foreign or foreign-born speculators.

IF the landlord in question should have been one of those, then I would be somewhat less opposed to government intervention. But I doubt that was the case here.

Germany has a sad history of going to the extremes. First the extreme right, now the extreme criminally naive left. I recommend culturally similar but more level-headed pragmatic guilt-free-er ways of pursuing or discussing solutions, such as in Switzerland or Austria.

After going to the extreme left may eventually lead to disaster, Germany might rock back to the extreme right or descend into civil war. Ideological thinking and the failure to listen to one another makes societies rock between extremes. Reality-based rational reasoning would seem to be the way out, but that is increasingly in short supply.

Who teaches humanistic ethics and rational reasoning and conflict resolution on a broad scale anyways ? What a failure of the education systems around the world and what a missed opportunity ! We don't have any time to waste. Widespread civil war in Europe and much of the middle East is but a stone's throw away if ideological entrenchments persist.

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Brian O'Reilly Christian Schmidt • Jun 7, 2017 at 10:02

There are even cases of Germans being evicted from their council homes to be given to "refugees"...one homeless shelter, used by German families for over 20 years has been demolished and apartments built exclusively for "refugees"...the homeless German families were evicted with nowhere to live as they could not afford deposits or rents. One other case is of a nurse being evicted by a German council so that a "refugee" would get her home she had lived in for 14 years. If you need links/videos to any of these tragic stories reply and I will post them. The road to hell is indeed paved with good intentions...Thank you and God Bless+

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Mike • May 15, 2017 at 16:49

Why not just take it to the next logical step and simply deport native Germans to Afghanistan/Syria/etc, in order to make room for the migrants?

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Felix KM Galanti • May 15, 2017 at 16:07

Guilt has done much to the Germans from their Nazi past. So now a lot of them are and have pushed Liberalism in order to appease their conscience and have gone to the extreme opposite side. Germans are always going to extremes, it's in their nature.

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Morag • May 15, 2017 at 10:30

The left are sounding more and more fascist everyday. How is it possible for people's rights to be trampled and disregarded? The loony left PC brigade are looking increasingly like the Nazis of old.

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Kabir Morag • May 16, 2017 at 10:36

This has nothing to do with nazism at all. Those are communist methods. That's exactly what the reds did first in the Russian empire, then in every country they gained control of.

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Sarah Kabir • May 16, 2017 at 21:42

Actually, I would disagree with you, Kabir. Respectfully, but very, very strongly.

The Nazi's ultimate goal was to achieve racial superiority. Back then, that was the ideals of the so-called Aryan race. Today, Germany is doing exactly the same thing, but wanting an 'equal' mixed race of 'brown' people. Very much like the Kalergi plan.

Also, Communist methods? The Nazi's were not Communists, they were Socialists. Both, interestingly and tellingly, are from the Left; but they're two different ideologies. And there are many alarming parallels to today's so-called 'Left' or 'Progressive' ideology that the Germans are practicing to an obsessive extreme, such as a welfare state.

Merkel and Co have openly stated repeatedly, that the reason for bringing in these people is to prop up the welfare state. To increase the tax paying base due to an aging and contracting population who will require a larger tax paying base to support them in retirement.

B) Changing laws, introducing new legislation and focusing on utilizing existing laws to choke freedom of speech and opinions and beliefs that do not follow the approved party message and line. That is identical to not only Nazi Germany, but also to Communism.

C) They are confiscating property owned by German citizens for the use of the government as aligned with their own, approved ideology. The last time this happened, the Nazi's did it. To the Jews. Remember the Holocaust?

They've done this before. And it escalated, horrifically. Why on earth should we believe it will not escalate again? We have their actions to go by. Actions always speak louder than words and even if it by some miracle, it does not escalate - the sheer mind boggling shock of what they are doing is not to be disregarded or whitewashed as insignificant.

Think about this, truly. German politicians, WITHOUT A MANDATE, in a democratic nation, are CONFISCATING privately owned property for their own uses, to suit their own goals. And they are charging private citizens for any 'works' they do to these buildings! That is not democracy! NO GOVERNMENT has the RIGHT to do this. Yet they are. And the Germans aren't even blinking over it. The Germans should be, by rights, rioting in the streets at this point, given the escalating series of demands placed upon them, without their express approval, by their government.

Now think about what are the defining basic elements of Communism.

1. State owned property, no-one owns and controls their own private property...2. State owned and controlled means of production - meaning the state, amongst other things, controls the media, controls trade, controls land...3. State controlled planning - meaning the state dictates completely the utilization of natural resources and balancing demand and supply of goods by their own say so etc.
4. Income control, by way of eliminating unfair income gaps with redistribution of wealth as a primary focus to achieve this.. (What is a welfare state but redistribution of wealth?)5. The State supplies and controls the provision of necessities of life - meaning providing people with housing, with income, with healthcare and education etc..

Now tell me that there are not significant, obvious parallels between those 5 basic elements of Communism and what the state of Germany is doing today, that there are not significant parallels between Nazi Germany and Germany today - and what they are providing to the horde of migrant's that the government are inviting in, without pause or end - and WITHOUT A MANDATE in a democratic nation.

Remember your history. Hitler, when in public, went on a campaign for years leading up to WW2; proclaiming peace. All he spoke about was peace and wanting peace. And the Western world fell for it, like utter fools.

Meanwhile, he was quietly preparing for war and of course, war broke out. Millions died. Millions suffered. The world was irrevocably altered as a result of German warmongering.

The world trusted Germany back then. We made a tremendous error in doing so. We should be learning from their past actions and from ours. DO not forget - the ENTIRE civilized world spiraled into a vicious life and death conflict with untold misery, death and damage.

Are we supposed to trust them again today? To forget their past actions and deeds? To act as though they never existed and to blindly trust that the German's will not lead us all down the same path - for a THIRD time?

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linda goudsmit Sarah • May 21, 2017 at 07:19

Excellent article! I would like to comment on Merkel's BIG LIE: "Merkel and Co have openly stated repeatedly, that the reason for bringing in these people is to prop up the welfare state. To increase the tax paying base due to an aging and contracting population who will require a larger tax paying base to support them in retirement." Angela Merkel's rationalization for flooding Germany with immigrants is the BIG LIE because these immigrants do not work, assimilate, or pay taxes - they are not enhancing Germany's economy they are collapsing it.

Why is Angela Merkel leading her country toward cultural and economic suicide?? Because she is a globalist who supports one-world government - the aftermath of the inevitable and predicted clash between the Islamists and the left-wing liberal Socialists. The globalist elite fully intend to impose and rule a New World Order - their one-world government of masters and slaves described in chilling detail 65 years ago by Nobel Prize winner English aristocrat Lord Bertrand Russell in his book The Impact of Science on Society.

Europeans marching for Muslim immigrants with hostile cultural norms embracing supremacist sharia law should take a moment and read the script that was written for them decades ago. They will discover they have been duped into surrendering their national sovereignty, individual rights, and have participated in their own destruction.

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Henry • May 15, 2017 at 05:50

Germans are suffering collective guilt, which eventually is leading to their cultural suicide and demise. It is up to Germans to rise up and retake their country, by repulsing this planned invasion.

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Brian Williams • May 15, 2017 at 02:51

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the last time the Germans pulled this kind of crap turn out real badly for them?

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tiki • May 15, 2017 at 02:49

Good that these things happen before the September election, which might give people an incentive to think again for who they will be voting.

It's unbelievable how Muslims & immigrants have been able to change educated & clear thinking European people into ignorant zombies.

In Holland & France they had their chance and blew it. The price will be paid by their children & grandchildren.

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Nate • May 15, 2017 at 00:26

Keep pushing the Germans eventually they'll push back.

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Kahemingway Nate • May 15, 2017 at 01:09

I hope you're right, but I increasingly doubt it. It seems like the Germans have been completely pacified after WWII and simply don't have the will to stand up for themselves.

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af • May 14, 2017 at 23:08

Silly me, I thought they must have a legal system in Merkelville.

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Ian Glover • May 14, 2017 at 22:26

Lying to the German people, manipulating the media, controlling the internet, rampant political correctness, bullying nationals who protest, understating the crime figures, and now, the forced acquisition of properties to accommodate these Islamic invaders; such behaviour demonstrates the desperation of the authorities to impose Islam upon Germany, and thereby the EU.

Such desperate acts must lead rational people to ask: who or what is behind this grand plan to turn Europe into an Islamic state and what is the motive for doing so?

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TexanForever • May 14, 2017 at 22:21

"Will authorities now limit the maximum amount of living space per person, and force those with large apartments to share them with strangers?"

Right out of Dr. Zhivago when the Communists took over Russia.

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Brian Summers • May 14, 2017 at 22:19

I wonder if the seized properties are Jewish owned........

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david bradshaw • May 14, 2017 at 22:09

'und ve know vat ist best for you ', the irony, creeping dictatorship in the name of compassion

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tedh754 • May 14, 2017 at 21:59

And who is going to pay the rent, as the vast majority of these refugees are unemployable? The tax payers! So it's a win-win for the poor migrants! Welcome to the New Europe.

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Frank Verderber • May 14, 2017 at 19:36

This is why the US citizens have the God given right to life, liberty, property and the pursuit of happiness and these are enumerated in the US Bill of Rights - specifically the IV, V and XIV Amendments. And we also have the God given to protect our rights as enumerated in the I and II Amendments - to speak up and protect by use of local armed militias. The Germans need to get this philosophic issue straight in their minds and take the appropriate actions to secure their rights, families and governance! If the German people refuse to fight for their natural rights, they will have doomed their society and their children to slavery - first under autocrats and then under Muslims.

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Jack Thomas • May 14, 2017 at 18:34

I see nothing unusual in a socialist State confiscating private property. After all, it is for everyone's good! I believe that this has happened in Germany's history, just a little more than seven decades ago. However, now everyone must bow to the God of multiculturalism, which, of course, is another leftist fallacy. Which country shall bow to the laws and customs of some exo-culturalists, such as cutting off heads, hands, mutilating and dehumanizing women, and throwing gays off roofs, etc.? Raise hands, please!

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Kalte Lokshen • May 14, 2017 at 18:22

What an irony: In the 1930s Germany had driven German Jews out of their homes and businesses and housed German non-Jews in them. Nowadays Germany is driving non-Muslim Germans out of their homes to house non-German Muslims. All of a sudden I begin to believe that there is a vengeful God.

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Jane Stewart Kalte Lokshen • May 14, 2017 at 21:31

I'm not sure its God being vengeful. It's more like God is a big believer in irony and there has come (finally) a time of justice being served to those who have tried to escape same for a very long time. I believe there will be a round of said justice administered to those in the United States, a la Hillary Clinton and pals. Just wait. It's gonna be a long, hot summer.

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Bill E Kalte Lokshen • May 15, 2017 at 04:52

It's God allowing Satan to do his work. It would be hypocritical for God to send a prophet to undo what Jesus Christ started.

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Leonard Feinman • May 14, 2017 at 17:54

I have to wonder why what is unconstitutional in one city is illegal in another one. Don't they have the same Constitution throughout the country? How could anybody think this is fair. Yes, it is Socialism, to a degree, and then it becomes Communism when people are forced into it.

Germany has led the way for the invasion, but it was spread through the E.U. It was not just Germany but Sweden as well. Now they have the highest rape rate averages in Europe. And, not just rape, but theft and assaults as well. The only people who want this are Globalists, who make money by the movement of people.

Ask George Soros how that works That, and cheating banks, are how he became a billionaire.

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Leveut • May 14, 2017 at 17:51

East Germany won the German Cold War after all.

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linda goudsmit • May 14, 2017 at 16:45

Philosopher Ayn Rand understood the sinister nature of collectivism and and wrote extensively about socialism/communism and how it persuades the individual to stop being an individual. "Socialism is the doctrine that man has no right to exist for his own sake, that his life and his work do not belong to him, but belong to society, that the only justification of his existence is his service to society, and that society may dispose of him in any way it pleases for the sake of whatever it deems to be its own tribal, collective good."

Ayn Rand compared communism and socialism. "There is no difference between communism and socialism, except in the means of achieving the same ultimate end: communism proposes to enslave men by force, socialism - by vote. It is merely the difference between murder and suicide."

The Islamization of Europe and the West demonstrates how mass social indoctrination toward collectivism leads to cultural suicide. "When you consider socialism, do not fool yourself about its nature. Remember that there is no such dichotomy as "human rights" versus "property rights. No human rights can exist without property rights. Since material goods are produced by the mind and effort of individual men, and are needed to sustain their lives, if the producer does not own the result of his effort, he does not own his life. To deny property rights means to turn men into property owned by the state. Whoever claims the 'right' to 'redistribute' the wealth produced by others is claiming the "right" to treat human beings as chattel."

Germany today under Angela Merkel is the collectivist nightmare that Ayn Rand described 75 years ago in her novel The Fountainhead. The left-wing liberal protesters in Europe and America and the members of Obama's current resistance movement ought to take a break and read books by authors who actually lived in under socialism and/or communism - they might actually learn what tyranny IS (objective reality) not what it PROMISES (subjective reality).

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Edward Cline linda goudsmit • May 14, 2017 at 17:25

An excellent and comprehensive comment, Linda. My hat is off to you.

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Keith linda goudsmit • May 14, 2017 at 19:33

Germany, in its zeal to repent of its past, is resurrecting the totalitarian monster all over again.

Germany is the source of great machinery, scientists, music, etc. But it is NOT the source of great political ideas.

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Jack Thomas linda goudsmit • May 14, 2017 at 23:03

Few could strike fear into the heart of man better than your summary, Linda Goudsmit. The tragedy is that many have no idea what communism and socialism is, and, therefore, its devastating effect on mankind.

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Jolene linda goudsmit • May 14, 2017 at 23:15

I agree with Edward, Linda. Extremely well put.

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Hana Jack Thomas • May 16, 2017 at 15:37

Absolutely. You hit the nail. I lived in communism until my 14. Then freedom came. But watching what is going on in Europe, Germany, etc, I can see my childhood. Communism crept in once again and I can't believe it!! I am 40 now. This is a nightmare.

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John Galt linda goudsmit • May 20, 2017 at 12:22

Miss Rand knew the score. She has to be one of the smartest people to ever have lived. Her works are incomparably integrated without contradiction. A genius who knew the score. I believe your last paragraph mentions the Fountainhead. I believe you meant "we the living" another great work of art from the unbelievably gifted miss Rand.

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jon • May 14, 2017 at 16:40

Heil Angela! Don't worry, it's just her Lebensraum for the Muslims who will be the German islamofascist overlords by the end of the century.

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paulusha • May 14, 2017 at 16:33

Keep Merkel in there and you reap what you sow...

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robert • May 14, 2017 at 16:10

Didn't the exact same thing happen there in the 1930's?

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Deborah Patton • May 14, 2017 at 15:59

I do not understand. EVERYONE in Germany experienced the reality of totalitarianism under the Communist rule of East Germany. WHY are they now tolerating and abdicating their own personal power to the state to determine what the PEOPLE experience in daily life? They KNOW what dictatorship produces! Were they so conditioned by Communism that they accept this as "normal?"

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Bastian Seelbinder Deborah Patton • Jul 17, 2017 at 18:20

Sure, west Germany SAW, from their perspective and the media, what the DDR was like. That doesn't mean they actually experienced it. The former east German states are rebelling quite a lot against certain newcomers, but they are harshly criticized and muted by west German states. It is currently impossible to go against left propaganda without loosing everything (job, status, maybe even regular live). Thilo Sarrazin, the author of "Deutschland schafft sich selbst ab" (Germany abolishes itself), is a prime example of how bad it is.

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Alkiviadis Constantinos Cefalas • May 14, 2017 at 15:25

Similar actions by the islamophilic European governments and institutions will be continued and escalated in the near future, unless the sleeping European citizens wake up and defend their lives, properties and culture against the intruders.

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Mike O'Neill • May 14, 2017 at 14:39

* "We are doing everything we can to ensure that the refugees are not homeless during the coming winter" *The 'refugees' are not homeless.They had homes in the countries they came from, homes abandoned to come freeloading in the west.

* It remains unclear why no one has challenged the constitutionality of Hamburg's expropriation law. *Because AfD, like UKIP in Britain and others elsewhere, is fast asleep on the job . . .

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Bisley • May 14, 2017 at 14:35

This is tyranny. If people have no property rights, they have no rights at all. There should be rioting in the streets. If Germans allow this, they've submitted to another dictatorial government, and will eventually have a government more oppressive than the Nazis, due to the technology that now exists to monitor and control them.

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Pat Walker • May 14, 2017 at 14:26

I am sickened by what has been happening in Germany. But, it was inevitable. Shame on Germany's leaders, but double shame on the citizens for allowing history to repeat itself. Citizens of free countries do have a certain amount of power. Always.

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Doug Mayfield • May 14, 2017 at 13:52

By voting for the Leftist/Globalist Macron, the French chose continuing cultural collapse and and inevitable eventual suicide. Perhaps the Germans will wise up.

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Melanie K • May 14, 2017 at 13:43

Remember the movie, Dr. Zhivago, where the doctor comes home after the war to his home in Moscow, and is greeted at the door by the Communist commissar. She says, "we can fit nine families in this house where only one used to reside." Coming to a country near you.

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Chris Veil • May 14, 2017 at 13:40

Property tax (Grunderwerbssteuer) in Germany always has been & still is extremely low, so that the wealthy can afford to purchase real estate solely for investment purposes (to sell in the future at a profit) & leave it vacant. The sales tax (Mehrwertsteuer) is extremely high, and since Muslim refugees pay sales tax, politicians feel they can justify high-level immigration. Germany has also always had a rental housing shortage, and it was so extreme during the 1980s & 1990s, that landlords made outrageous demands from tenants. In the early 1980s, the German government passed a law making it illegal to leave a rental unit vacant, but the law was never enforced. Germans would hang curtains on the windows of their vacant apartment units to make it seem that it was rented out instead of having compassion and renting to fellow Germans who were in desperate need of a place to live, which was extremely cruel. The German government housed Muslim immigrants in 5-star hotels at the German taxpayer's expense. The German government could have easily increased property taxes & decreased the sales tax to put landlords under pressure to rent out their units during the 1980s & 1990s to help Germans in desperate need of housing, but they did not. Now, for the Muslim refugees they are taking drastic measures, which they did not do for Germans!

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Lyn Rubenstein • May 14, 2017 at 13:37

Germany never learned its lesson as to making laws in secret. Hitler made a number of laws to suit his needs and it seems as though Merkel is doing the same. An owner of property can do as they please; it is their property. The government should not have the right to exercise eminent domain just because someone chooses to leave something vacant as long as taxes are paid. Were I an owner who had to pay for an illegal immigrant, I would never pay those bills. Of course, my property would be confiscated and the laws here are quite different than they are in the supposed "Democratic" Germany. Hopefully, Merkel loses to a more conservative party. The illegal immigration of Europe is abhorrent.

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Rosandy • May 14, 2017 at 12:41

The Germans have plenty of practice confiscating property. They did the same to the Jewish population during WW2. I suppose practice makes it easier to do a second time around. What makes it worse this time, is that they are giving them to the people who want to take over and eliminate the indigenous people. God Help Germany, and Europe, they are inviting in and promoting a Medieval death cult.

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JoAnn Leichliter • May 14, 2017 at 11:32

The problem with government seizing private property is that it makes owners insecure in their title to property. Forced renovation and leasing do something similar, making individuals less interested in acquiring property and starting businesses. It is property rights that are at the heart of every successful economy (see, for instance, Hernando de Soto's book, The Mystery of Capitalism). Even the Chinese struggle with this problem. Lots of luck with this slippery slope, Deutschland.

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Mike Murray • May 14, 2017 at 11:23

Does Germany or Hamburg have rent control? Often rent control is the cause of landlords walking away from property, since the cost of property tax, upkeep or upgrades cannot be recovered by raising the rent.

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Scott • May 14, 2017 at 11:02

Freedom from Tyranny (from the government) is why we have a 2nd Amendment and why Germans do not. Fascism is returning to Europe and it will not end well.

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Linda Goodman • May 14, 2017 at 10:59

How to create a tyrannical world government:1. 21st century technology
2. Open borders and forced migration of totalitarian-minded Muslims to destabilize free nations and displace liberty-minded natives.
3. U.N. Sustainable Development to demonize CO2 to monitor and restrict all of humanity. "They who control energy control the world."

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gruhn • May 14, 2017 at 10:57

"The rule makers approved a rule that allows them to..."

That's all you need to read.

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DockyWocky • May 14, 2017 at 10:53

Knowing Germans are penny-pinchers at heart, wouldn't it be much cheaper to just ship the migrants back where they came from?

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Mary M. DockyWocky • May 14, 2017 at 16:52

Yes it would. For instance, in 2016 Austria attempted to deport a few Afghani refugees (total for 2016 = 1098). Afghanistan refused to take them back. So Austria paid the Afghani government around 50,000 Euros (may have been more) to take their citizens back. Which worked. Sounds like bribery, but cheaper in the long run - in many respects.

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Edward Cline • May 14, 2017 at 10:51

The measure was applauded by those on the left of the political spectrum. '"We are doing everything we can to ensure that the refugees are not homeless during the coming winter," said Senator Till Steffen of the Green Party...' And what about Germans who are left homeless by these confiscations and seizures? Tough luck. Private occupied property has already been "nationalized" by Germany (vacation spots, hotels, retirement homes), Italy, and other European governments to evict residents and house barbarous migrants. I guess we're going to see the return of "Displaced Persons Camps" from WWII, populated by real Europeans shunted aside by their own governments.

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JELLFISH • May 14, 2017 at 10:44

Its a old Communist way Called Appropriate and Divide. As they did in RUSSIA. IF you had a nice house they would would take your house from you and put many families in the house each having a room. IF you dared to say anything you would simply disappear. They would accuse you plotting to overthrown the state. To make it legal they would make you sign a confession. Don't think this would not happen again. The EU hates the UK for wanting to leave. And if you are British and caught for speeding the fine is £ 560 and trace you to the UK through the D V LA and demand that the police arrest you if you do not pay. What is happening in Germany the beginning. I was once stopped riding my motorcycle and fined for not putting both feet down to the ground at a tee junction waiting to turn right. The police after taking the money on the spot said have a nice day. My reply was The English WERE HAPPY TO PAY THE Germany government money Because YOU are POOR. HE DID NOT LIKE THAT ONE BIT HIS COLLEAGUE PULLED HIM AWAY.

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Peter Terry • May 14, 2017 at 10:38

This kind of governmental behavior has to be opposed, vigorously, not only by the US government, but by citizenry. I think it is time for a boycott of German products to be launched. Perhaps the Germans will care enough about their pocketbooks to turn back from this extremist trend. Otherwise, a right wing neo-Nazi response is inevitable. Germany has already experienced this kind of extremism more than once in its recent past. Do the German people really want to go there all over again?

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ABDELKADER HAMDAOUI • May 14, 2017 at 10:38

An extraordinary example of greed-induced shortsightedness.

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Lady Rotha • May 14, 2017 at 10:30

Yet more Fascism in Frau Merkel's Germany: the most malignant German woman since Irma Grese!
This Teuton Imp has imported a barbaric, unproductive and stateless horde to tyrannise over and take-down her own People and Culture: or to facilitate her wretched Government doing so. Germany has yet another fanatic as Chancellor.
Hamburg should be subject to a General Strike in response to this outrage!
What next, we ask ourselves...*Re-education Camps* for those who resist?
The Western world is falling under tyranny.

My heart goes out to the German people of sense and reason.
Where is the Germany of Beethoven, Goethe and Hegel...?Only Divine Providence can save Europe from the Abyss.

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Brewster • May 14, 2017 at 10:30

If I were the landlord, I would rent those vacant units to anybody for a $1.00 per month on a month to month basis. Don't know if they can do that in Germany, but seems perfectly legal.

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Jim • May 14, 2017 at 10:28

Enjoy it Germany. The well off leftists still can hide from the impact of their ignorance, for a while, but it will eventually hit them too.

The pathetic irony of the situation is that the wealthy of Germany will end up leaving their country for places like the USA, when they are the ones who brought the mess to the people of Germany in the first place.

Do us a favor when it comes to that elitists: stay the hell out. Stay where you are and reap what you've sown.

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Poupon Marx • May 14, 2017 at 10:23

Don't ask questions, Hamburgers. Just keep voting for Establishment Parties and people like Merkel. Don't ever vote for a Nationalist, Patriotic party. Do not march in the streets and occupy City Hall. Just bend over and take it. Let the traitors and the (((Hostile Elite ))) take everything from you and kill you slowly but surely.

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Hilltop Watchman • May 14, 2017 at 10:03

This is nothing new, the Germans have got plenty of form in stealing private properties. After all they set the tone when they forceably removed millions of Jews and stole their homes and possessions to house "ethnic Aryans". Why the surprise that the Socialists and red "Greens" are emulating the National Socialists in a similar programme of population displacement and replacement? If I was in any way religious, I could see this as being God's final vengeance on the country that sat on its hands as it's Jews, Gays etc were taken away, enslaved and exterminated. The irony is that the culture being imported and imposed will, given half a chance, do to Germans what they did to the Jews and others. Now THAT'S what I call Schadenfreude.

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Yocheved • May 14, 2017 at 09:56

The Germans had no problem with seizing Jewish homes, and moving Jews to the Ghetto (and worse).

Now the Germans will end up living in Ghettos, and sharia will be the new law of the land.

The irony would be hysterical, if it wasn't so tragic.

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MC • May 14, 2017 at 09:54

I wonder how many people will be stupid enough to report vacancies in their neighborhoods.

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Juanita Skelton • May 14, 2017 at 09:48

I am going out on a limb here, so please forgive any misconceived ideas in my vain effort to make sense of this incredible over-reach by the German governments, both municipal and district, or by federal over-reach.

It is certainly NOT sound thinking to ask or even expect SUCCESSFUL business persons to "volunteer" to lose money or to invest in schemes that take their profit margins to red ink! Why don't the city governments work WITH the real estate owners to make the deal a win-win for everyone, such as: form an investment structure that gives the owner some property tax incentives; a clear and distinct grant option to get money that is tax free to rehabilitate the properties enabling them to go from commercial space to residential; and try to circumvent having to create temporary shelters that may eventually become "Callaise-like war-zones". Neighborhoods could be re-vitalized. The government sector could help Germans start businesses creating what we call "cottage industries" to help feed and clothe the immigrants. Organize the commercial zones into very experimental housing that leaves a greener footprint as well. Motivate the formation of immigrant entrepeneurships, with the caveat that they in five years or whatever time feasible, learn German, pay taxes, and if they become radicalized at any time, they LOSE it all!

I have to tell you, this article created so much righteous indignation within me, I could not just "comment"! I can't believe that the highly intelligent Germany, with all it has accomplished, couldn't think outside such a sinister "box" as the one this article mentions?!? Angela Merkel is not a "dumb blond". Has she been unable to use creative business ideas to counter her "self-inflicting" immigrant policies? This truly is scary! The Germans must know something else about this problem that is making simple solutions out of reach for the ordinarily very competent German Republic.

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kirk • May 14, 2017 at 09:33

The Germans have what they have because they tolerate what they tolerate. IF, en masse, true Germans would let their 'leaders' (loose term) know what they want done, it would soon ensue.

Muslims will not integrate, instead demanding other societies and cultures become as they are. To let them in en masse is national suicide.

It's long past time for the German people to start resisting this invasion.

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PJ • May 14, 2017 at 09:00

Yeah, I bet those new tenants will be reliable making their rent payments, too.

But this is nothing new. Everybody pays property taxes, which is already an expropriation. We gave up on the principle that property is inviolable when we accepted property taxes. Government still steals from us, and decides how much and in what manner to steal.

"If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. [...] Men might not get all they work for in this world, but they must certainly work for all they get. If we ever get free from the oppressions and wrongs heaped upon us, we must pay for their removal. We must do this by labor, by suffering, by sacrifice, and if needs be, by our lives and the lives of others."-- Frederick Douglass, Aug. 4, 1857

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Ed Schenk • May 14, 2017 at 08:52

...and has no one heard of the government seizure of private property in New London, Connecticut? An entire housing neighborhood was seized by eminent domain and then turned over to private owners for commercial exploitation. It went to the US Supreme Court, which sanctioned the seizure, setting absolutely new legal eminent domain precedent. So on the books in USA right now the legal underpinnings for the same sort of seizure of private property by the state lurks waiting in the murky darkness called eminent domain. Check out what happened in New London, Connecticut.

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JoAnn Leichliter Ed Schenk • May 14, 2017 at 13:05

I remember this appalling decision very well indeed. Ironically (as I recall), the development for which the land was seized was never implemented.

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Ed Schenk JoAnn Leichliter • May 14, 2017 at 22:43

JoAnn, from all I can find you are correct, but wait it gets worse! Read this NYT article:Pfizer to Leave City That Won Land-Use CasePfizer and 1,400 Jobs to Leave New London, Connecticuthttps://mobile.nytimes.com/2009/11/13/nyregion/13pfizer.html?referer=

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Ariane Hechter • May 14, 2017 at 08:28

Democracy "en Marche"

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Phred • May 14, 2017 at 07:55

I find it really misleading calling them center-left Social Democrats (SPD). Merkel calls her party (CDU) center left also. Both of these parties are since years nowhere near center. They have all shifted so far left, there is no balance left in the European politics anymore. They all call the AfD far-right which it really isn't. It is closer to the center than these other two parties. Everywhere the same, the left is always trying to stamp out the opposition with its lies.

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Skara Caesar • May 14, 2017 at 07:36

And that's what the patriotic and loyal Germans worked hard for; to share or give their homes away to people who have no intentions to integrate let alone assimilate. Not hard to predict the kicking out of Germans in the very near future.

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Dominic Stockford Skara Caesar • May 14, 2017 at 09:55

Nor is it hard to predict what the outcome of this behaviour is going to be. People won't just sit back and allow their homes to be stolen for long.

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Paul Fishman • May 14, 2017 at 07:31

The authoritarian approach to violation of property rights is the beginning of Germany's collapse from the EU and the Islamic Nazi regime is a certainty.

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Jeff Page • May 14, 2017 at 07:23

Just what on earth are the Germans doing to their own people? It really is astonishing to think that property can be appropriated and owners compelled to pay for all renovations in order to house immigrants! What lengths are the German authorities prepared to go to so that they are not seen as the fools that many across Europe see them? It would be easier to stomach if the majority of the immigrants were going to make a solid contribution to German society, but many of them won't and they'll soon begin demanding more. They won't assimilate or integrate with wider society and of course, the religious element will inevitably raise its ugly head.

Why the rush to commit suicide? Have the German politicians got such a guilt complex after so many years since WW2 that even common sense escapes them?

There will be repercussions, in some cases, property owners will challenge the government and local authorities, and they would have every right to do so. Why should they foot the bill for any refurbishment that they perhaps don't have the money for? Why doesn't the government pay the current market costs and the pay for the refurbishments themselves? After all, it was Frau Merkel's silly invitation that caused the housing crisis in the first place. Dumpkoff!

So they are seizing properties owned by other people, forcing those owners to rent to anyone the government chooses AND then actually having the temerity, the sheer gall, the unbelievable audacity to charge the owner for the costs of renovating as deemed by the government as necessary?

Germans must be the most submissive people on the planet to allow this. To allow the police to just march in to their homes and force them to house total strangers from across the planet in them.

Either submissive or blatantly stupid. Seriously Germany. If you vote Merkel or any party that aligns with her ideas about letting these people in like they have been doing - then you all deserve everything coming. Wake up for Pete's sake and stand up. The government exists to serve YOU not the other way around.

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Norbert Kausen Sarah • May 14, 2017 at 08:20

Canadians are some of the most submissive, docile sheep, right along side the Germans! We have the same issues here with our politicians, but they have not begun confiscating homes just yet...that will likely come, as our government follows the same line of thinking.

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Poupon Marx Sarah • May 14, 2017 at 10:29

"Everyone wants to live at the expense of the state. They forget that the state lives at the expense of everyone."
― Frédéric Bastiat

"The state is that great fiction by which everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else."
― Frédéric Bastiat

State is the name of the coldest of all cold monsters. Coldly it lies; and this lie slips from its mouth: "I, the state, am the people."-Fredrich Nietzche

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Tallulah • May 14, 2017 at 06:42

The Hamburg authorities are confiscating properties that have been vacant for 4 months. But it's unclear to me in this article whether the proposal that was given up in Berlin was for abandoned properties only or for actual occupied homes, perhaps that would be deemed too large for a given family? These words: "The Senate would authorize the police to enter private homes to house refugees, even against the will of the owner" seem to imply homes already lived in rather than unoccupied houses.

That would have been even more outrageous - *if* that was the case - than forcing the owner of abandoned property to pay for fixing up a property and renting it to the tenants of the government's choice.

Bringing huge numbers of migrants into any country, beyond that country's ability to cope without damaging or destroying some or all of the rights of its own citizens is an ethical crime, whether "constitutional" or not. Germany is racing towards a new totalitarian state and is bringing in hoards of people from cultures that disrespect those who do not believe in their own harsh religion. A good portion of people from the Middle East, whether a majority or not, hate Jews and homosexuals and believe the world would be better if they were wiped out. And those who believe in strict Shariah do not believe in democracy, nor do they believe that the same laws should apply to non-Muslims as apply to Muslims. What proportion of the huge masses of these migrants believe in strict Shariah? What proportion believe that it's their to Allah to bring Shariah to the West? Does anybody know?

If the clash of cultures between the Europeans and the Middle Eastern/North African Muslims isn't destructive enough, confiscating properties to make a home for this overwhelming mass of often hostile migrants is a perfect way to stoke outrage and violent backlash among the native population.

It's as if the socialists in Hamburg and Berlin (not to mention the rest of the EU) actually *want* social catastrophe.

They're going to get it.

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Caterina Farkash Tallulah • May 14, 2017 at 08:18

You are absolutely right !!!!!!!!!

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Sma Tallulah • May 14, 2017 at 09:06

You said it. The pro-invasion authorities are very well aware what this will cause. They obviously want civil war because they know at some point, slowly but surely, the German citizens (and eventually ALL EU citizens as this will eventually be EU law) will be damned if they don't and damned if they do.

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noreen cerino Tallulah • May 14, 2017 at 13:44

Seizing vacant properties is where it begins. If this is allowed, soon it will be properties deemed to large for the lawful occupants. By it's very language, this is the projected goal.

As long as people keep voting for globalism, this is where we are headed. This is one of the goals of UN Agenda 21/30 (sustainable development). Most people have been suckered into the globalist agenda without even bothering to find out what it entails.

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Mickey Oberman • May 14, 2017 at 06:16

I could never have imagined the authorities of any country that were so intent on destroying their own country.

Perhaps it is time for Germans to revolt against their insane government.

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Jill Ward Mickey Oberman • May 14, 2017 at 14:10

Coming to Canada as well with Trudeau and the Muslim Brotherhood government ruling over us. Trudeau has publicly stated he HATES CANADA/CANADIANS/OUR IDENTITY/OUR VALUES/NATIONALISM AND OUR RACE while he just removed our border security and invited the entire globe to wander freely/illegally into Canada, promising we Canadians would look after them all. He also has removed immigration and citizenship laws in order to make it easier for them to invade and conquer!

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Yaffa Mickey Oberman • May 15, 2017 at 02:51

As for Germany, I am scared. I still remember the holocaust. I am afraid that there are still Nazis groups together with other groups that protest against the theft of civil right of the indigenous residents. The thing is that the government will try to depict all those who are against that massive immigration will be depicted as Nazis, in order to weaken all of those groups.

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Undeclared War • May 14, 2017 at 05:39

This is war against the people, albeit as yet undeclared. We can look forward to more as the globalists sense success is within their reach. Be prepared to defend you property and country or lose it.

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Norbert Kausen Undeclared War • May 14, 2017 at 08:25

You have it exactly right! It is a globalist issue and it is in Canada also! The global elite are creating a one world totalitarian government and the EU is that social experiment. The same line of thinking is happening in Canada and other countries too. This is the "New World Order"!

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MARLO BERNIER • May 14, 2017 at 05:29

Sprachlos doesn't even begin to get it (however, truth be told; quelle surprise)

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